The power dissipation of microprocessors and other processing devices generally increases with each design generation, as the operating frequencies of these devices are increased. At the same time, feature sizes are decreasing and, therefore, the number of active circuit elements (e.g., transistors) per unit area is rising, which may lead to increased power densities. This increase in power density coupled with higher operating frequencies can result in greater heat generation during operation of an IC die, and this heat should be dissipated for proper functioning of the die and reliability. Further, due to the aforementioned factors as well as other design and operating conditions, one or more “hot spots”—e.g., a location on a die where the temperature is significantly greater than in surrounding regions on the die—may be present on an IC die during operation, and a failure to adequately extract heat from such hot spots may lead to damage and/or a degradation in performance of the die. Thus, the thermal performance of die cooling systems in present and future generations of IC devices will become increasingly critical.
One technology that may meet the aforementioned needs is liquid cooling. Liquid cooling solutions may be used to cool a variety of IC devices, including processing devices such as microprocessors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and any other type of IC device. Further, these liquid cooling systems may find application in numerous types of computing systems, including, for example, servers, desktop computers, laptop computers, as well as handheld and other portable computing devices. One challenge facing IC device manufacturers and computer system manufacturers alike is the handling of liquid coolants. Potential issues include the storage and shipment of IC devices and/or cooling systems with a liquid coolant, as well as the assembly of a computer including a liquid cooling system. The import of these issues may be most pronounced with regard to small equipment manufacturers who may not have the resources to purchase and/or operate their own liquid coolant filling systems.